The Last Days - Part 2,The Last Days - Part 2
allowed the Russians to get within the city limits! Earlier in April, Goebbels had been reading to Hitler of Frederick the Great’s salvation, when all seemed lost and the Russian army was about to conquer Germany, by the death of the Czarina, Which immediately changed the whole political picture. They sent for horoscopes that had been drawn up, one on 30th January 1933 and one on 9th November 1918, at the birth of the German Republic. In these, it was predicted that in the second half of April 1945 there would be some success, leading to a peace in August, and a re-emerging Germany in 1948. Tying these together, Goebbel’s is reported to have been in absolute ecstasy on 13th April when he learned of the death of Roosevelt. He telephoned Hitler but Hitler’s response has not been recorded. And all this serious debate at a time when so many were still dying.
April 21st was Hitler’s birthday and all the Nazi leaders were there: Goebbels, Goering , Himmler, Ribbentrop, Borgmann plus top military men Doenitz, Keitel, Jodl and Krebs. Three did not stay long. Himmler, Goering and Ribbentrop all got out of Berlin that night, Goering with a whole line of trucks loaded with the treasures of Europe. These defections and the discovery of the non-existence of Steiner’s counter attack, led to the worst raging that anyone had ever witnessed. This ended with Hitler making the decision to stay in Berlin and direct its defence. The date was April 22nd and the Third Reich’s one thousand year predicted lifespan had less than three weeks to run. ,There is a very telling passage in ‘Wild Swans’ by Jung Chang where she describes how, at the age of 14, her father was taken into ‘protective custody’ (a euphemism for arrest) when she and all his family and friends knew that any accusations had no basis. He was released after about 3 months and returned home, radically changed. Within weeks she has decided that she will go to Peking to see Chairman Mao i.e. to be one of the spectators at a review of Red Guards, even though her father is obviously still not well, but it is something she has long wished to do. Such was the division in people’s lives in China at that time. She was not to realize until years later, that it was the policies of Mao which had led to
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